Sun Dance [first Edition] | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Sun Dance [first Edition]

SUN DANCE [FIRST EDITION] is currently used as a generic term having reference to a rich complex of rites and ceremonies with tribal variations specific to at least thirty distinct tribal groups of the North American Plains and Prairie. Although tribal variations of beliefs, traits, and the structuring of ceremonial lodges are significant and of great importance to the groups concerned, there are nevertheless sufficient similarities to justify use of the generic term. Since these distinct tribal groups represent at least seven mutually unintelligible language families, understandably there is also present the once-universal sign language, a rich means by which even subtle and complex matters could be communicated to all the tribes. Traditionally the peoples have been divided into four major groupings: the northern tribes; the southern tribes; the village, or eastern, tribes; and the Plateau, or western, tribes. Each tribe within these groups gives the Sun Dance its own specific term, which has reference to particular ritual emphases. The Shoshoni and Crow, for example, refer to the complex as the Thirst Lodge, or Thirst Standing Lodge; for the Cheyenne it is the Medicine Lodge; and for the Siouan peoples it is known as the Dance Gazing at the Sun.

Sun Dance [first Edition] article

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